Wateryworld

 By Daniel Nelson

Watermark

Image by Watermark

Other mesmerising sequences follow health-wrecking tanneries, extensive abalone farms, giant ice cores, 12^th century reservoirs that are vast “inverted Pyramids”, geothermal springs, a barren delta where a river once ran.

And most extraordinary of all, the breathtaking Xiluodu dam that seems to be the creation of a species from elsewhere in the solar system – until the camera fixes on a single, diminutive Chinese worker checking on her mobile phone to see if it’s ok to descend into the bowels of the beast.

These visions are typical of the work of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose large-format still visions of industrial scenes translate naturally into equally awesome big-screen documentary film.

The scale of some of the sites provokes a gee-whiz reaction, as do the patterns of fields or cracked earth. But as in many wildlife documentaries, though the visuals are stunning they need more explanation. Water’s preciousness, the awe it can generate, and the terrifying effects of its use and abuse are up there on the screen (though for once not larger than life), but, perhaps from fear of preaching to or boring audiences the film-makers keep commentary and interviews to a minimum.

There’s a tellingly off-key moment when we see Burtynsky supervising the printing of a beautiful book of his photos. It is awkwardly out of a place amidst the splendours and stupendous vistas of the rest of the film, yet even the shots of the flashing lights, of the printer, though superfluous, are mesmerising.

The nearest the film comes to a moral or a statement is in the words of a scientist in Greenland, J.P. Steffensen: “You can’t live unless you’re in water, because no two cells can divide without being in water. We spend the first nine months in our mom’s womb, inside the ocean. It’s a reconstruction of the ocean, where all life has to take place.

“Even inside plants, you cannot have cell division without it happening in water, so water is everywhere. If that water link would ever break, allowing a cell to rupture and dry out, life would end.

“So I think it’s a fascinating thought to think that you and I can only sit and have this conversation because we both represent an unbroken link of divided cells in water at all times in the past three billion years.”

The scene is worth seeing, not least because it offers images and views of places that you’ll never otherwise see. It’s a tour de force – and yet, against the evidence of your eyes, the parts are more than their sum.

·          Watermark is showing at the ICA, 12 Carlton House Terrace, The Mall, SW1 on 5-11 September. Info: 7930 3647